The buzz: Otamendi in? Mendes snares Óliver?

Pricey Otamendi ticks all the boxes and Óliver is wanted by the "super-agent"

In their search for a player to bolster manager Simeone’s defensive options, Atlético have set their eyes on Porto’s Nicolás Otamendi, according to AS.

The 25-year-old Argentine defender is particularly appealing, because he can play both at centre back and at right back, and he possesses an Italian passport.

Otamendi, who is represented by “super-agent” Jorge Mendes, has reportedly reciprocated Atlético’s interest, so a transfer could happen.

However, his contract reportedly contains a hefty €15 million release clause, which means Atlético will likely need a third-party to help facilitate a transfer.

Jorge Mendes to get his claws into Óliver?

“Super-agent” Jorge Mendes is trying to recruit Rojiblanco starlet Óliver Torres into his sports agency, Gestifute, according to MARCA.

The precocious 18-year-old is widely regarded as one of the brightest talents in football, and a future Atlético star.

He’s currently under the wing of lesser-known agent Pablo Barquero, who’s been with him for years and who negotiated his current contract which runs till 2017.

Though Óliver and his family reportedly have an excellent relationship with his current agent, Mendes’ power and influence may prove too strong to resist.

Negredo could cost Atleti an arm and a leg

There’s no doubt that Sevilla’s Álvaro Negredo is the number-one priority this summer for Atlético, who consider him the ideal replacement for the departed Falcao.

Because the Spanish forward, who turns 28 in August, wants to remain in Spain and to play in the Champions League, a transfer is probable.

Atlético are hoping to include one or two of their players, like Pizzi, in their offer for Negredo in order to lower the transfer fee.

But according to various Spanish media, Sevilla are demanding a fee of at least €20 million due to their financial problems, so a deal won’t be done anytime soon.

Jeronamo

Hmm all very interesting, I’d like to get Otamendi but i still think Negredo isn’t Atleti material

Ahmad Hossainy

if Mendez put his claws on Oliver so forget all what you have dreamed about him of staying at Atleti for many years and becoming one of Atleti legends and that Koke & him will be the “Xavi-Iniesta” of Atleti and all your other fantacies.

Alex21

Is Otamendi really worth 15 hard earned million? I feel like that’s a little out of our budget, especially considering that i thought Diego was Atleti’s top priority come the last game of the season. Diego would probably take double digit millions to bring in, a striker sounds like at least 20+ million, and Otamendi for 15? Sounds like superfluous spending to me. Unless the sale of Godin to the premier league does indeed happen, i don’t know how efficient this transfer window is sounding. Do we really want to bother with ANOTHER painful third party group to pay for a player who will only stay at Atleti for a year before earning 10 million a year at a bigger club? Only to fulfill Mendez’s desires? No thanks. I hope Atleti is smarter than that.

And what is with the rumors that Atleti can only spend a certain amount? What happened to the sponsorships, the CL birth, the cup win, and the sale of Falcao? I realize with the third party bull crap we may not have received the full amount, but that should still leave us with quite a bit…shouldn’t it? Debt problems catching up? Who knows.

Kaminero

El Confidencial claims that Atlético have now sold 25% of Oliver’s “hypothetical transfer fee” to Mendes. If I understand this correctly, it means that Atlético get 5 million now from Mendes and he will get 25% of whatever sum Atlético gets for Oliver in the future.

kris

Relax Alex. It’s still 30 millions. But we have to spend smartly.

Ahmad Hossainy

I read the same thing Kaminero at MARCA, but what I don’t understand is : what if we never sold Oliver?! .. do we just pay that asshole his 5 million back, or pay them + interest or what?!

and about Otamendi, FC Porto just posted a statement on their official website saying that there isn’t any negotiation or contact with Atleti about the player

it was very obvious that it’s a rumor .. all factors indicated to that

Ian

If otamendi really is with jorge mendes, i’d rather us not be involved with him at all..
And really, oliver should really be smarter than that, he knows what happens with falcao, if you sign for mendes, you’ll be a mercenary.

JimboWithTheDancingShoes

Acording to mundo deportivo Sevilla won’t take anything less than 25€m for negredo. That means no loan deal involved only cold cash, is what they are after.

Willen

Apparently, Higuain will leave Madrid for 20€m. Does Negredo worth this much? I don’t think so.

He is the better striker, but that isn’t all that matters. He isn’t the primary striker at Real and he’s not considered a potential big loss, plus most importantly he is extremely clear to be one to be wishing to leave badly.
Negredo is very important to the Andalucian side and therefore a way bigger loss, plus they would sell him to a club that is considered a rival by some, because of being in La Liga.

Apparently Oliver played pretty well at the U20 world cup today, by the way.

kris

Oliver, Manquillo, and Saul all did great against the U.S. Oliver’s creativity and vision is just so brilliant.

this started to piss me off, every day I’m searching on the web hoping to find that Negredo had signed with Aston Villa or any other club

I’m counting the days to see Koke, Oliver, Saul & Manquillo playing together at Atleti, it would be great to have a team with canteranos majority, but looks like Gil Marin does not care about that .. he is such a shortsighted

Arjit

^ I’d also like to see a canterano-based team. I don’t think negredo deserves this much effort and money to lure him. If he doesn’t even aid Atletico in the move somehow, it just shows how hard he will fight for the shirt. He’d be moving to a team that’s at a much higher level than his current team and play champions league. However he has shown no respect or appreciation for Atletico.

Atletico- palestine

Guys believe me negredo is an excellent finisher i think he will fit with diego costa… Last season he scored 25 goals 3 less than falcao take into consideration the number of penalties falcao scored and that for sure atleti’s midfield better than sevilla.
In my opinion if not luis suarez then negredo is the best 😀

kris

Of course Negredo is a great finisher. But if Gil really wants to sign him, just sign him with the dayum money not include any of our future stars like Saul. And I don’t believe we have enough money to buy Luis Suarez.

kris

Plus, did Sevilla pay the full price of Reyes?

EC

Wolfsburgs sporting director has said Atletico cannot afford diegos asking price and that he does not expect a serious offer from us. Dissapointing if true

Andres (Lolaya)

Only get Negredo cheap (Pay low salary as he is going to be playing CL football while Sevilla won’t be) and make sure Atletico don’t pay Sevilla 20 million. Sevilla are in a tough spot right now but they deserve it… digging themselves in their own hole.

Ahmad Hossainy

according to MARCA and other sources, Real Madrid just sealed Isco deal for only 24 million, and we are trying to buy Negredo for 20 to 25 million .. this is silly !!

if Isco costs only 24 M why in the hell we didn’t even try to sign him, he is exactly what we need : a creative midfielder !

we don’t need a damn striker, when we had the best striker in the world, Falcao, we were only the 5th strongest attack in La Liga !
we already have a gerat striker called Diego Costa
we need a player like Isco, Diego, Belhanda, even Mohammd Salah would be good

beside that, Isco is also a very good deal economically, his price will increase very much and if we had him we could have made a big profit of selling him if we wanted or needed

are we going back to the sad era of 2002-2009 when we made many stupid deals that cost us a huge amount of money and we didn’t get any thing in return ?!
I’m talking about signings like Ujfalusi, Heitinga, Assunção, Sinama Pongolle, Elias, Coupet, Fabiano Eller, Seitaridis, Pablo Ibáñez and many many others.

ali_

isco would have never come here… he could play at real, mancity, etc. we hardly can compete with those clubs.
btw ujfalusi as a stupid deal?!

Ahmad Hossainy

yes Ali, I’ve never liked Ujfalusi,
in my opinion : a stupid deal for a stupid player .. half of Messi’s glory was made by him !

in fact he should never be a footballer, he should be one of the supporting actors in the medieval movies which contain a lot of sword fighting scenes
actually there was one looks exactly like him in Troy !!

I’d go back a few years and add Leo Franco.. BTW I think Assunção was a really hard worker.

Lubo

Don’t tell me Assunção was a bad deal. For almost nothing Atletico got one of the world’s best anchor man. Okay, his passing was awful, but back in 2010 he and Raul Garcia were vitals to our EL campaign.
Elias was a bit shortsighted move from our board (non-EU places), but in general he could have been a good capture for us. We also sold him with profit.
And really? Ujfaluši for free a bad piece of business? Sorry, but are you nuts? Maybe he wasn’t strongest defender in the world, but he did his job decently. Especially after he settled to the living in Spain. Look who is Cholo looking for now, a central back able to step to the right back role. That’s what he was.
About Heitinga.. I think he was voted Everton’s player of the season after he left from Madrid.
4-5 years ago, Atlético had decent amount of solid players bought for a good price, but we were missing organization in the back and a strict approach that Cholo brought. I’m pretty sure, Heitinga would be a king of central backs if coached and lead by Simeone.
If I remember well, Pablo Ibáňez along with Luís Perea were considered as the best central defender pairing in La Liga at some point of time. Perea was wanted by Barca for 8 millions + (18 years old) Andres Iniesta…
But yes, we had Coupet, Sinama, Seitaridis, Maniche, Costinha, Eller, Pernía and many others that were awful. And we didn’t have a coach to make all the stars work as a team.

Miki

Ujfaluši wasn’t a bad deal for us. He came on a free transfer and did a relatively good job on the right. Yeah, sure, Juanfran is better at the moment, but you know, Ujfa wasn’t that bad either. The fact he is still loved by many Atleti fans speaks for itself.

As for Pablo, he is the biggest mystery for me. I honestly don’t know where it all went wrong for him. He came on cheap (3.5 mil), was Puyol’s partner during 2006 World Cup and did pretty well at the beginnging. He was at one point even linked with Barcelona and Real, especially with the latter one. If I remember correctly some presidential candidate of Real even promised Pablo as his marquee signing, which wasn’t taken well by Atleti fans. And after that his form suddenly dropped and never recovered.
But still – by no means he was a bad deal. He was a good deal that eventually turned out pretty bad, but you can’t blame our club for betting on him.

Ahmad Hossainy

well, we have different opinions about few players but we all agree in principle .. this good enough for me

all I wish is that we never take that road again

Paulo

I remember when Pablo and Perea were considered La Liga’s best defensive duo. It was 2006, I think. On the same season I think Atleti was leading La Liga going into the winter holidays. After all, we finished seventh and got into uefa cup through Intertoto Cup, if my memory doesn’t fail me.
Ujfalusi was really important at the time, even though he made numerous blunders in defence (but so did everybody else in Atleti defence).
Also Assuncao was one of the most important players in atleti. His passing was bad, but he was instrumental in stopping the opponents attacks.
Maniche was ONCE also a great player, had good vision and a fierce shot, but he had problems with authority (especially with Aguirre) and acted like a primadonna when under pressure.
I remember Abbiati being really horrible for us in some games, and look at him at AC Milan. The point is, sometimes the coaching is so bad, it makes the players look worse than they are. Sometimes it’s vice-versa. Also the adaptation to different playing styles won’t go always as planned.
Remember how bad Reyes was for us when he came from real and was booed every time he stepped on the field? Suddenly when Quique came and he was really given some trust, he started playing awesome and was one the heroes of the team. Again, when Manzano came (The former Sevilla coach almost destoyed all of the hard work Quique did), he was left out of the squad and started playing “bad”.
We eventually sold him (Arsenal bought him from sevilla in 2004 for 30m) to Sevilla for 3.5m euros plus bonuses.

That’s Bad Business. Not when you get someone for free and he is instrumental in somebody’s Europa League winning run.
Just because you people see one game here and there, you can’t judge a player, if you don’t follow his every game closely. Nowadays it’s so easy ’cause of the web and youtube. It used to take up a lot more passion for the game… Nowadays you all watch some kind of goal compilation and immediately say your opinion of a player. That’s ridiculous.

vLad

Tell us more, great Pablo.
What do you know about other fans here? everyone has an opinion just like you.
Your comment is what ridiculous here

Paulo

And the last comment wasn’t aimed at anybody specifically. Please don’t nobody take it personally as it is just my personal opinion.

vLad

“Nowadays you all (!!!) watch some kind of goal compilation and immediately say your opinion of a player. That’s ridiculous.”

Assuncao was pretty good, but he, or Aguirre, all of a sudden blocked Camacho’s growth big time. The kid wasted 2-3 years and is now slowly getting to the track he could and should have been on way before.
Plus, technically and in the air he was already ahead of Assuncao, who was just a great tackler for half a season, in which we fortunately reached a Europa final. I was greatly happy with the 2010 victory, but how can you deny the terrible luck against Valencia and meeting Liverpool at its weakest in years.
I think Assuncao was a great “buy”, though, but I think it would have been better to have him as an experienced back-up.
Ujfalusi was a very useful addition, too. Heitinga was okay, he seemed pretty promising, so I get it. In the end he was better at the offensive parts of a defender’s skill set than an attacker’s, but I think that’s more his business and his mental capacity, maybe. He was pretty good as a right back, though.
Sinama and Elias were talented additions, Sinama fell through, although he began quite promising. Same thing could happen to Leo Baptistao. Elias was business-wise terrible, but he could have been very good for the team, pretty weird what happened there and I got why he was pissed off by the club.
Coupet and Seitaridis were unnecessary, just “name”-buys plus Coupet was ridiculous with De Gea ready to step it up behind Leo Franco.
Eller I don’t really remember terrificly, but I think he was one of those risks you take when buying a young talented player. Same story as Sinama/Leo/Salvio (although Salvio was let go off twice just after getting into shape, physically and mentally. Would have been very useful this year, but I guess they needed the money.
And Pablo used to be half of a great partnership, can’t blame them for that, crazy what happened there. In hindsight the mistake would be not selling him to Real for big money.
Though with all the players good-great elsewhere, you’d think there might have been an issue of bad coaching.
Quique was a terrible coach, in my opinion, for example.
He had supporters for the luck in EL and getting Reyes happy and motivated for a while, while still failing in La Liga. He made a lot of players worse, actually. Aguero was unhappy, Forlan was unhappy. We all know what happened to them and I wouldn’t be surprised with other members of the team not being happy under the conservative “Reyes’ daddy”.

kris

Come on guys, stop arguing over what happened in the past. Ujfaluši ,Assuncao were both good defensive players. Assuncao played a great part in helping us win two consecutive ELs. Discuss about the future of this club now. I don’t even like to discuss about Falcao anymore, now that he’s left the club. I am thankful for what he did but he is a past now. Even Ratuero as much as it psses me off. Discuss about Oliver,Saul,Manquillo,Koke, and who we will be buying now. BS argument here with you guys. Leggo of it.

I still haven’t gotten an answer to if Sevilla paid full price of Reyes.

Kulan

The last thing I heard in the Negredo saga was 15 million plus Pizzi and Saul on loan. Don’t know about buy-out clauses but I really hope that is not included in the Saul deal.

Alex21

That is such a piece of shit deal. So ultimately, negredo will be worth 28.5 mil. 13.5 for the value of Pizzi, plus the 15. Waaaaaaaaay too much money. Come on Atleti…negredo had his best season THIS year, not next. He’s all downhill from here. I cannot tell you how angry this deal makes me. Bring in luis muriel before negredo. Bring in anyone before him. I’d almost rather have higuain. ALMOST.

kris

Seriously, though, if Isco is only worth 24 million, Negredo is maybe(not even) only worth 3/4 of that. 28.5 is way too much for Negredo. I would much rather have Di Natale than Negredo. At least, he is worth that much even if he’s 35.

What happens to Silvio? Only one of him and Manquillo should be in the team this year. The other should be loaned out or let go of for their own development. Of course I’d rather have Manquillo for the right back back-up position, slowly growing into the starting role he might deserve sooner than we think.
Plus, if we get a winger, will Koke become a CM permanently? I think it’s time to get him into the team there for real, this season. Not much to discuss about him being a big prospect in the central midfield area and maybe our best option already. I’d really like to see him grow in that position and take the team further.
Saul and Oliver are more dependent on the formation and tactics used, though they are quite versatile.
#FREEOLIVER

kris

No, no, no, no, no. I am asking did Sevilla pay the full price for Reyes? They could use what they didn’t pay for Reyes in the Negredo deal. We’ll probably get Papu Gomez, though. Adrian can always be used as a winger, too.

epoy

the guy i want us to buy as striker is Chicharito… I felt that he would score tons of goals for us…
No negredo please…. I’d rather the club take a risk on a young south american striker with loads of potential than have him… Im talking about Leandro Damiao or Facundo Ferreira… We got the striker department covered with Diego Costa, Adrian, Leo and Pizzi with the last 3 able to play as attacking midfielders when needed… I say we take a risk for a cheap future potential superstar from South America just like what Porto is doing.. Diego Costa got the goals we needed for next season covered as our star striker…

epoy

and please don’t sell Pizzi or make him part of the Negredo deal… He looks very promising in Depor…

I also think Oliver should consider the loan offer from Rayo especially if Diego would arrive… also we should loan Manquillo, Saul and Asenjo or Joel.. Joel looks good in Wigan especially in the FA cup finals… Not bad for a third choice keeper…

marcelo

We really need to sign Diego.He was brilliant last season.Almost like his Bremen days and I would love to have that Diego.

Do you guys think Insigne could be a possible and possibly good buy?
Even though Cavani seems to be leaving, they bought Mertens and I believe they are looking for another attacker.
I don’t know what Benitez’ plan is for the team, but Pandev, Hamsik, Mertens and the probable new striker to arrive in Napels seem to be ahead of him in the picking order. Those facts might increase Atleti’s chances of luring him, plus they could somewhat decrease his value.
He is very talented and very fast. He’s mostly a winger, but can play as a second striker, too. The offensive prowess we could use, if not too expensive.

I know, Diego is finding his Werder form again, mate. He’ll be a huge addition to our team. He needs to come, if Simeone says we need him, then we really do need him. Nobody knows more than Simeone, so Gil needs to listen to him and do whatever it takes to buy him.

marcelo

Simeone shouldn’t have said that he only asked for Diego in public though! Wolfsburg know that we’re desperate and will definitely look to take advantage of that.

super3athens

well let’s see a little our roster
gk:courtois, sergio, joel. I think we may loan one of the last two(or sell him if we have a good offer)
cd:miranda, godin, diaz(if there is an offer sell him) and pulido. We need one decend back-up otamendi is great but 15mill for a back-up??? maybe demichelish will be a better option.
rb:juanfran, silvio, manquillo. if simeone think manquillo is total ready to be juanfran’s back-up then we probalby have to sell silvio or loan manquillo and give silvio an opportunity.
lb:filipe, insua..(i believe cicma left) so we are ok
central mid: gabi, mario, tiago, saul and also koke and garcia can play… we are going to need one espacially if tiago leave(toulalan will be great for 5mil)
off mid(right-left-center):koke, arda, garcia, pizzi, oliver, rodriguez and also adrian can play at this position.. well we need a no’10 and maybe we will sell one of garcia or rodriguez.
strikers: costa, leo and adrian(i don’t see him as a striker but as a winger and a second forward) i believe we are ok. but if we can find a good deal(13mil for negredo would be one but i don’t see it) we can buy one… to conclute:
-we need a good center back for a back-up even if diaz stay
-we need an excellent no’10(diego maybe) or a second forward(llajic would be a great one)..
-we may need one central mid espacially if we don’t renew with tiago
so i don’t believe we are going to die if we don’t buy a striker…
and if we need money we have 1-2 players to sell(diaz,silvio,garcia or rodriguez)
aupa aleti

super3athens

damn i forgot. we also have cabrera(central defender), i have no idea if he is good, ruben perez(central mid) he can be the ‘transfer’ and ruben micael i think he can play at atletico and of course our own youngers borja and pedro,(i don’t know if they can play at atleti)

starvs

Fuckkkkk why did I watch that Diego video, I’ll be so sad if we don’t (re-)get him, ignorance was bliss.

kris

Yehh, starvs, he has truly returned to his Werder Bremen form now. Out of 172 dribbles, he had 4.03 successful dribbles per game, and had an outstanding dribble success of 75%; top in Europe.

Alex21

I definitely agree Diego is much needed..i mean, hell, we had him on loan for one year and look at the impact he made! He actually likes Atleti and Atleti loves him. W need guys who WANT to be here. Not the Negredo’s. Guys who will give 1000% every game regardless of opponent. We need to keep Pizzi and land Diego. Case closed.

Ahmad Hossainy

Ty, Insigne is a very good player, he had 5 goals and 7 assists with Napoli last season, in Calcio these are big numbers .. if we couldn’t sign Diego he would be a very good option
but I really don’t believe that De Laurentiis will let him go easily, he is a very tough person, a very strong and genius president .. he build a great team with small amount of money
he will make things very complicated for us

on the other hand, I just read that Simeone met with Papu Gomez in Buenos Aires and asked him to come to Atleti,
Gomez is also a great player, with 8 goals & 8 assists with Catania last season, and as I mentioned : these are big numbers in Italy

Marcelo, I totally agree with you, it was a big mistake from Simeone to talk too much about Diego

in fact, more than month ago, Manuel Esteban ‘Manolete’ (AS journalist and one of Atleti’s big fans who has a blog about Atleti on AS) wrote about this and asked Simeone and the board to stop talking about Diego or Wolfsburg will take advantage of that .. and that exactly what happened !

Personally, I have a feeling that it will be Papu not Diego who will come .. and for me : that’s not bad.

epoy

what do you think of Ruben Perez guys? is he good enough for atleti now or we loan him again?

kris

Well, Papu is a winger and Diego is a creative midfielder. Cebolla can play as a winger, Pizzi can play as a winger, Adrian can play as a winger, and we have plenty of wingers but we need a creative midfielder at the moment. But as I mentioned, I am not the manager and I don’t really know what and who we need. Simeone seems interested in Papu and if he wants him, board should do whatever it takes to buy him. But you guys are right, these things shouldn’t be mentioned in public.

Ruben Perez was great for Betis, not yet ready to come back though, six more months, maybe?

JimboWithTheDancingShoes

How come Beñat wonder off to Bilbao for a price of 8€m when we are in need of an offensiv midfielder? We should be capable of compeeding with (no offense) Athletic Club. Well hope we get Diego. And would’nt papus arrivel mean goodbye to Pizzi, for me that would be a shame. I think he has prooven himself good enough for atleti, but aparrently not good enough for El Cholo. That’s odd.

kris

Benat to Bilbao for only 8 million and Del Nido wants 23 million plus Baptistao on 2 years loan for Negredo? What S*IT is this? If this deal goes through, I will be so p!$$ed. Seriously though. Thiago only 18. Isco only 24 and this,, this,, Negredo for 23+Baptistao? Gil, please don’t let this go through. Look for another striker. This is a horrendous deal. This guy is not that consistent, I would much rather buy Gomez(which I believe is only 20m, I read on GMS) than this stupid player. Gomez is a great poacher and he is what we need. Diego Costa serving him, Gomez serving Costa would be so terrific. Screw Negredo and go for Gomez.

Ahmad Hossainy

kris, you are right .. all you have mentioned are wingers, but Papu is better than all of them, maybe not better than Adrian of 2011-12, but for sure better than Adrian of last season
I think we only signed Cebolla because he was free and his salary is low, I’m grateful to his efforts and his great fighting spirit but he didn’t give us too much .. even when it comes to Uruguay national team there are many Uruguayans who are not big fans of him

and actually when a winger make 8 assists that makes him a playmaker in one way or another

and Jimbo, there were many clubs interested in Benat inside Spain and abroad, but I guess he chose Athletic because he is from Igorre, Biscay (Basque), and we all know what that club means to this separatist province of Spain
I believe it took Bilbao only one phone call to him.

starvs

I can’t believe this Negredo bullshit is still being discussed, it’s a fucking farce from top to bottom. The idea was a non starter with (most) any atleti fan from the jump!

starvs

NOT TO MENTION TEVEZ JUST WENT FOR ~15MIL EUROS!

Alex21

15 for Tevez who has speed, passing ability, and clinical shooting..and we want Negredo?? A one foot only, slow, aging striker who is only going downhill from here? I realize Tevez is aging as well, but he doesn’t act like it. Sevilla can shove it right up there anal canal. Baptistao to me will be a crucial player for our squad. We can’t afford to lose any more players on loan. I believe we should sell Perez, and Tiago to get a few mil, and keep Pizzi AND Leo. Use the couple million to bring in papu or Diego and the Atleti board should sell their own bodies to bring in a defender as well. Negredo is more worthless than my shit.

kris

ahha, completely agree Alex.

Alex21

What ever happened to the Thai striker who’s name escapes me at the moment? Wanna say it starts with a T? Maybe not. Why couldn’t he get a chance especially as an injury backup or whatever.

ali_

Alex21: Teerasil Dangda, i guess he wasnt good enough.

anyway you should all relax. dont act like we can do anything about negredo stuff. i didnt like the idea either, but he knows la liga, he has technique, speed (not slow at all). and AGING? come on people wtf? he is 6 month older than falcao. yes, his price is too much, but what do u expect from sevilla? im pretty sure the board and even negredo knows that the fans dont like him. me neither, but im started to accept the fact that he’s gonna be our next number 9.

JimboWithTheDancingShoes

Now also Roma’s Osvaldo is on his way to Atlético. according to his agent atleti and roma has been in contact and chosen a price on €18m for the big striker. Sounds fine by me a bid controversial but cholo can handle.

Why not pay 18 mil for Damiao? We are thinking about Negredo for 25 ish. Damiao is better, he can create space, and he’s younger. Lots of room to grow too.

Osvaldo blah. I’d rather have Bojan instead.

Alex21

Excuse me, Mattia Destro, not Bojan. Don’t know what i was thinking.

EC

Osvaldo is a player I thought we might be interested in when we sold Falcao. €18 mil for him would be decent I really liked him when he was at espanyol and he has been good at Roma aswell

kris

Mario Gomez is too cheap. Only 20 million for the most consistent striker we have seen in the recent years. We have to go for him. He is a very lethal finisher, plus we don’t have to give another of our players to get him. 2 million cheaper than Shigredo, too. And only 2 million more expensive than Osvaldo. And we all know Gomez is times better than Osvaldo.

Alex21

Mmmm, good point.

palc

We might not like Negredo due to personal reasons, but he will fit in well in the squad. He’s spanish and probably knows several of our players. And he’s a hell of a good player. But €20 mill + Pizzi/Baptistao on loan might be a bit too much. I agree on that.

What’s up with the Toulalan deal? Will it not go through?

super3athens

i think we all agree…. 18 mill for osvldo, 20 for gomez, 24 for negredo… the it’s no question pick gomez. but we have to find offensive mid first.. about gomez(catania’s) he is a great play but a winger i think that one of koke or turan can play as offensive mid and gomez as winger, not bad

EC

Is be surprised if we got Gomez for €20 mil. I reckon it will be €25 or €30 mil. In which case I’d rather have negredo for €20 mil tbh

kris

No, his fee is reported to be only 20 million. Fiorentina have already made a bid.

Alex21

Fingers crossed on Gomez. Both of them. Mario was considered one of the best strikers out there last year, and an injury took his starting job. Papu seems to be a creative player we need. I say go for the Gomez duo.

EC

Pretty sure firointina’s bid was rejected. Besides Bayern paid €35 mil for him. Hopefully we sign him for €20 but I can’t see it. He will be on big wages aswell I would imagine

Back on the real subject, Osvaldo was always “a thorn in our paw” against us, but couldn’t be hated as he was unbeliavably good.
I would welcome him. I’m not sure if Mario Gomez would adapt to La Liga, but he’s good, too. We need a fast, clinical finisher, who’s not easily intimidated, that’s for sure. Still I would look into the youngsters more…
Damiao seems fucking great, but haven’t seen that many full games of Internacional to say too much. The danger is, if he turns out great, all the big money clubs are after him after the first season and then it’s the same stress again as he’s so young and a big name in the player market. And it seems he’s going to Spurs anyway.

kris

Yehh, Damiao seems like a good choice. Or Benteke. That is if we want to make profit from them, but right now, Gomez has a lot of Champions League experience and he is a lethal finisher.

vLad

Speaking of Osvaldo an Roma.. were’nt we in talks with Lamela once? He’s a great player. Better than Adrian I think

i am also a southampton fan although i love atleti more…
gaston got lots of potential although his first season in the premier league is just average when you consider how much soton paid for him.. but maybe he would be more effective in Spain…

EC

We have now been linked with Bojan. I really would not like him to be our out and out striker next season. Also there was a report of Everton bidding for negredo and in the report it said he has a £18 mil release clause. Not seen that mentioned anywhere else

kris

Bojan, the three time reject? ahha. no.

EC

I think bojan is a decent player and was quite good at Roma but I don’t think he is good enough for Atleti. Apparantly betis nd malaga are in for him aswell. Would be a pretty good signing for one of them

I see Koke as CM the coming season, so Tiago to leave, Cebolla to stay. Diaz should just go, he adds nothing, he just takes.

Ahmad Hossainy

obviously only 3 of the 7 returning loanees have a chance :

Pizzi, Silvio & Joel, but the last one seems to be not welling to stay after he played many minutes with Wigan including FA Cup Final which they won its title .. also Asenjo wants to leave

Cata is leaving for sure, and if we signed another CD Pulido is going too

we haven’t heard any thing about Tiago renewal, looks like he is leaving although I think he still have a lot to give

and I think Simeone is not convinced with Silvio, and on the other hand he has a big faith in Manquillo, maybe he will be Juanfaran sub next season

kris

Cebolla is a waste too. He played really bad for Uruguay.

Ahmad Hossainy

Kris, I agree Cebolla is an ordinary player, Raul Garcia too
but if we let them both leave then we have no bench !

kris

Well, our bench is overcrowded as of now, and looks like Simeone will let go of 10 players. Will probably buy 3 or 4 more players, so.. I don’t see, whyy we’ll have no bench. Keep Pizzi,buy Papu Gomez.

Alex21

i agree with you, Kris. Use the sale money to Diego as well. Still firm on the idea for the atlético board to sell their own bodies on street corners to make some cash to bring in another striker. Maybe that’s just me.

Ahmad Hossainy

guys, Cebolla will never bring us a big amount of money, even Porto the smartest club in selling players did get a penny from him and we signed him for free

and if even we got money from him, we still can’t spend more than 30 million, that’s the maximum we allowed to spend this season decided by LFP due to our debt

but if one of Pizzi & Cebolla have to leave, it’s Cebolla .. no argument here

Ty Gambo

Let go of Raul and get Diego and one more creative player. Then we have Leo for Falcao, the new winger for Raul and Diego for both as an extra asset. Cebolla is very average, but has proven that his pace and shooting can be effective against some opponents when coming on later in the game.
And if Tiago leaves, Koke is his replacement, with maybe a new defensive midfielder if needed, if Koke and Gabi (or Mario instead of one) is not strong enough defensively. I hope it’s not needed so Saul can slowly get used to a squad place as fourth CM and Oliver as one of the subs for the front four. He has proven to be very technical and has tremendous vision. Hope he keeps improving, in the U20 world cup he reminds me of a mix between Diego and Xavi, with his play and positioning. Plus he seems to have grown a lot at the defensive and physical aspects of the game, his interceptions are very good, I payed a lot attention to him and sometimes with his positioning, both offensively and defensively it is like he can predict the future. Maybe we could play something like this even:

Gabi-Koke-Oliver
Diego
Adrian-Costa

With Arda/Leo/Pizzi as other options on the front three, Arda maybe as one of the three midfielders too.

By the way, what happened to the story of Arda wanting to leave, didn’t his manager state that publicly in January or February or something?
I hope it’s not true or changed.
Sometimes I think he’s overrated a bit, but he can be very great and useful, also with his hard work supporting Filipe on our great left side!
Hopefully with a new winger our right side is just as invincible!
And if Koke-Gabi is as strong as I foresee, but mostly hope, of course, Diego2 will have a lot of space for creativity, especially with those two creative and wise midfielders behind them and the support on the sides.
So, I really hope Diego and one very good winger prove good enough, otherwise hoping that Adrian and Pizzi are good enough! Is Pizzi best on the left, though? Arda can be great on the right, but one that’s best on the right might be good to have, with the occasional swapping of wings.

kris

Ty, I have said the exact same thing about Oliver. He knows the whole game, what’s going to happen.

JimboWithTheDancingShoes

What! Ljajic for only 10€m!? Why don’t we just buy this lad? he’s a lot more than HALF as good as Negredo and he’s only 21. Apperently he’s agent will be meeting our board in the next few days. Hope he dosn’t get scared away. This would be a hell of a signing. All my trust to the board now. Don’t know if you can feel i’m a bid of a Ljajic fan.

ahha, that match was scary right now. Jese with a lucky @ss goal, I thought it would go in to overtime. Oliver didn’t do as good as he did against France, but this kid is incredible. Ljajic will be a great buy. We can have a very young squad in the future, if Ljajic can stay with us for at least 5 years. He can play as a 2nd striker and an attacking midfielder. I would love to have him if we can’t buy Diego, or we can buy him and Diego, but the limit spending is only 30 million. So Negredo for 22 million will be a really bad buy. I would love to have Papu Gomez and Diego, and maybe Osvaldo. But that will be a lot of money. I don’t get how the rule only applies to us, Barca have already bought Neymar for 57 million, and Real Madrid look to buy players for 60m+.

Barcelona have bigger income, from television rights and foreign markets where they have the bigger name, easily.
I think it’s the result of some formula, which makes it pretty logical that Atleti has a lower limit.

EC

where does it actually say we can only spend €30 mil? did we not spend like €70 mil last season? considering we finished 3rd this season, got straight into the CL and won the cup surely we should be making more money than previous seasons. this isnt the time to be cutting our transfer budget, we need a strong squad that can consistently get into the CL and also get far in that competition as it is a financial gold mine.

super3athens

welll if it is llajic for 10mil the buy him NOW!!! he is great.. after that we need no strikers(he is not a striker but he will be costa’s partner) and if we buy diego or gomez then…. wow god our offence will be fantastic… so koke probably will play more as a cm… and we can sell one of cebolla or raul(i don’t think we will get a lot of money for none of them but we won’t need both of them) and sell diaz and buy a better cd. then we are perfect!

super3athens

somewhere i read that we made a bid for roberto(ex-atleti goalkeeper he plays at zaragosa). i had wrote before some weeks that we should go for him cause next year we are going to need a keeper. he is really good and probably cheap(zaragosa realagated this year so he can be available for some players on loan+let him ther for 1 more year)

Alex21

Buy Ljajic, Gomez, Diego, and we have Baptistao. What a terrific transfer window!! Imagine the rotations wee could have with just these 4 guys alone. Not to mention with Arda, Koke, Diego Costa oh baby. I wish the fans had a say in the madness.

Ahmad Hossainy

@EC
actually my friend we spent more than 60 million at 2011-12 season for Falcao, Arda, Pizzi & Silvio + whatever Courtois & Diego cost us

BUT last season we only spent one million for Cata, while we brought Cebolla, Emre & Cisma for free, then we bought Insúa in the winter for 3.5 million .. and that had nothing to do with the regulations of the Spanish Football Federation .. it was simply because we didn’t have money

now about the RFEF regulations (or LFP, don’t know exactly who make these decisions) : it’s not only about Atletico Madrid, but for all the clubs who are in debt (all Spain clubs except Real & Barca) !!

the amount of money the clubs are allowed to spend in this transfer market depends on the ratio between the amount of debt & the income of the club in recent years

in fact 30 million is a lot, there are clubs who had much less limit
the Spanish football authorities are trying to decrease the clubs debt which the biggest part of it is for the tax man

and by this they are actually protecting the clubs .. not fighting them.

kris

But, the fact is Barca and Real are in more debt than Atletico. See, this unfairness will just keep on making the league worse, while other leagues such as the Bundesliga and La Liga keep on growing. If you ask me LFP is complete utter $hit, and only targets clubs that are not globally recognized. But, we shall prove them wrong next season by winning our decima La Liga title and getting to the semi finals of the Champions League.

Andres (Lolaya)

I really hope Atletico gets at least the same amount of TV rights RM got this year as they actually made the league more competitive.

If they don’t, they are very ungrateful of the efforst Atleti is making in bringing La Liga higher both internationally or nationally.

Football clubs are businesses, businesses have debts.
Big businesses have big debts, usually.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are bigger than Atletico, their stadium, players, etc are worth more money, which allows for more space for debt.
They also have bigger revenue because when people talk about Spanish football, they talk about Real and Barca.
That’s just the way it is.
Gamewise it might be unfair, but it’s money and money is business. In business it’s all about profit and loss.
Real with 500 million debt would probably still have higher profits or lowers losses than Atleti would with 250 million.
Debts don’t mean that much, actually. Everyone has debts, look at your mortgage or whatever.

If Atleti continues to be close to the top 2, they might grow their international fame, though. And a big name gets big money.

Alex21

Which is utter bull shit. It’s a high school popularity contest on massive steroids. I feel sorry for teams like zaragoza, getafe, teams in the lower part of the league that don’t stand any kind of chance to qualify for anything. Makes me happy Atleti at least have that. Still want ljajic and Gomez however.

kris

Alex, Papu or Mario? Mario is going to Florence, it seems. ANd you are right about the high school popularity contest.

starvs

Look Atleti couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t offer more than 3m for Toulalan, reportedly. Clearly there is no money to go around.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Negredo was 100% a smoke screen to waste time, because when he isn’t signed eventually, everyone will actually be happy. And then no one comes.

Alex21

Kris, Papu, not Mario. I’m convinced that we wont be purchasing a striker until winter.